Saturday, November 25, 2006
So, the day before thanksgiving came and my dad still hadn't called to invite me so I felt it was pretty safe to assume that he had either forgotten in the midst of business or that his plans had changed. I decided that at that point I had 3 options. I could go with Matt in Atlanta or Kenneth in Charlotte, I could figure something out myself, or I could call my dad myself. I eliminated the first option because I didn't want to impose, I didn't want a pity invite, and I wasn't really in the mood to drive just for that. I didn't want to call my dad myself because even though I went there for the past two years (being specifically invited both times), I didn't feel like that gave me a right to feel entitled to an unspoken invite. So, I decided to make my own thanksgiving. I went shopping to get the necessary supplies and made 2 pumpkin pies the night before. Then, thanksgiving morning, I woke up and prepared my turkey and put it in the oven (yes, I bought a whole 5.8lb turkey just for me) and then prepared the rest of the food. I had turkey, mashed potatoes (from real potatoes, not instant), gravy from a packet, canned corn, green beans, yams, and cranberry sauce, and stuffing from a box mix. I was rather proud of my plate when I sat down to eat and it looked like a real thanksgiving plate.
When my mom heard what I was doing, she was mad at me for not assuming the unspoken invite and then tried to convince me to fly to Minneapolis. I really didn't feel like dealing with the hassle of standby flight and the possibility of not getting back in time since I can't afford to miss a day of school.
Then, at about 2PM, my dad called and asked me what I was doing for thanksgiving. I replied "eating it". The conversation then led to my explaining that I made my own since I hadn't heard anything. At that point, he established the unofficial invite policy so now that it is given I am open to using that option in the future. He mentioned that he doesn't know how long my break is but that I was still welcome to come down, but I don't think he really thought I would.
So, I finished watching the movie I was watching, began packing, and by 4PM I was on the road. At 6PM I called his phone and asked what the plan for the night was. He wasn't sure what I was talking about so I specified that I meant at his house. He assumed I was inquiring in order to decide whether to come and was surprised to hear that I was already 2 hours down the road. I made good time and made it to Cochran about 45 minutes later (it's supposed to be a 4 hour drive). He then gave me directions to Eastman where he and his wife were working on redoing tiling at the old house they are trying to sell. If only they'd been at home! As I left Cochran, the town seemed to drop off pretty quickly so I sped up thinking I was back on open road and I didn't make it too far before flashing lights appeared and I stopped. Turns out the speed limit was still 35mph so my going 61mph was a wee bit over. He marked it down to 59mph (I guess >= 25 over is something worse) but gave me a ticket so that extra leg of the journey will be expensive both in citation fees and in whatever extra money my insurance company will happily demand from me.
So, today I spent some of the day playing with some of my dad's wife's kids and then I spent most of the day working on my Sanskrit project. My little half-sister Brianna was pretty much terrified of me at first and always shied away. However, thanks to my psych classes and my nature, by the end of the day I was on good terms with her and she was smiling and babbling away with me. Apparently that's good time and with some people she simply never warms up no matter how many days you give her. Being attentive and responsive but not overstimulating or pushing her when she's had too much is the key.
So, if I keep being able to make progress on the Sanskrit project, I'll probably be here most of the break. I may swing by Peachtree City on the way back for a day and/or a night if there is any demand for it.
Oh, and this is totally off-topic, but I've discovered something problematic with my finances. Most of the expenses that school puts on my debt are in the form of loans. Most of the credit card debt and its increase is not from school, but simply from daily living expenses. I simply don't make enough to cover all of the bills. My mom is trying to talk me into taking a trip around christmas/new years time to try to use more flight benefits before they run out, especially in case Continental does want proof again before next fall. She argues that it is worth going into more debt for since I won't get the opportunity again. Normally I would agree (e.g. Amsterdam), however this is where my problem comes in. At the current rate of debt increase, if I go on that trip, I won't be able to afford to move. As it is I'm worried about whether I will or not since this revelation about the source of the debt means that even after school is out, my debt will continue to increase until I get either a second job, more hours on the current job, or a new and higher paying job. If I want to move at the end of February or soon thereafter then I won't really be able to get a second job for that short of a period of time. If I do get a second job, it will require staying here quite a bit longer both because I'd want to put in reasonable time to not cause the employer to hate me and because with that extra time taken up I wouldn't get that last bit of time I had hoped to invest into really putting a last shove heavy experience time into Athens and so that would have to stretch out more too. So, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do since even if I were to trim back my expenses to a minimum, it would not slow down the debt growth substantially enough to make it worth the extra effort to maintain and the losses sustained to save the money.